Easter

Greetings to all from Costa Rica. I thought I would write a little about Easter here in Latin America. It is very intersting to watch and learn about. We had an entire week off of school prior to Easter. It is called Semana Santa, or Holy Week. This is the same week that we went to the volcano, Arenal. I wrote about that a little while back.

Today's blog is about Easter Sunday and the three days leading up to it. On Thursday, the entire city of San Jose is completely shut down. Almost every business is closed, and people begin to get in a really somber mood. They seem very sad and are in mourning. It seems like they are expecting something bad to happen. In fact, most of the people act like Jesus is going to be crucified again. It is huge! All day Friday, they parade or walk around all of the Catholic churches making a lot of noise and mourning the eminent death of Jesus.

We were able to rent a vehicle for Semana Santa, and on Friday night, we wanted to get something to eat. So, we went for a drive to try and find something open. As we passed the Catholic church in Zapote (the area of San Jose we live in), there were a lot of people in the street marching around the church with noisemakers and crying and yelling. It was a lot different sight than we normally see in the United States. Well, we drove around for awhile, and we finally found a KFC open. So, that's where we had dinner that night.

Then, on Easter Sunday, we had a service at the school. All the missionaries in Costa Rica came, and we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus together. San Jose was almost like a ghost town. It was so quiet. Our service was nice. We had a service for the adults, and our friend, Monica Peercy (Missionary Associate to Mexico-she will be the children's pastor at a church in Mazatlan) held a children's service for all the kids, we all ate lunch together, and then, we had a traditional Easter egg hunt for the little kids. The picture above is Abigail Shrader. Isn't she cute? She's a missionary to Peru.

We had a good time, but I couldn't stop wondering about how the celebrate the death of Jesus and not the resurrection. The Latino people seem to build up all week to Jesus' death, and then on Saturday, it is all over. You know what? I didn't see any hope on any of the faces of the people marching around the churches! I wanted to scream out, "HE'S ALIVE! YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY AND MOURN BECAUSE THE MAN YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS NO LONGER IN THE GRAVE! HE IS RISEN, AND HE WILL RETURN IN THE SAME MANNER AS WHICH HE LEFT!"

All people need to hear that the reason for Easter is the death and RESURRECTION of Jesus Christ. He is our hope! He is our salvation! He is our peace! He is love, mercy, justice, and grace! He is our all in all! He is everything we need and more! Please put your trust in him. Allow Him to come into your heart and just see what He can and will do for you.

The pictures above include Monica teaching the missionary kids sign language to a song, Chaz doing Easter eggs, and the girls just got back from their MK retreat (they are exhausted).

Love to all,

Charley